A majority also said that increasing efficiency would be one of the biggest challenges.

Iain Hasdell, UK head of local government at KPMG, said: “Reductions in Whitehall funding to local governments in England and Wales could be in the order of 15% in real terms, the toughest squeeze on council finances in the post-war era.”

Hibberd told Personnel Today that local governments were already looking to reduce head count by 10% by 2012. A 10% reduction in local government staff levels would see the loss of 290,400 jobs. If applied to the wider public sector, it would mean 578,300 jobs would go.